I recently purchased a Jeff Rowland Concerto integated amp. While the amp is incredible, I cannot figure out how to hook up my Rel Strata sub. Something is different about the Rowland that makes it more tricky or maybe impossible, so any help would be appreciated. When I contacted Rowland they suggested getting in touch with Sumiko. When I contacted Sumiko they said to get in touch with Rowland. Anyone have the same problem? Solutions? Thanks, Jerry

As Drubin says, the REL is designed to be connected to the speaker outputs of your amp.....i've owned a few Rowland pieces and have a Storm III and can't remember anything different about the speaker connectors...

if you were planning on using some Pre-Outs, don't, the REL sounds better at the speaker outputs.

What I was told, but do not understand, is that the Rels were not designed to connect to a differentially balanced switching amp which I guess is a digital switching amp.?. It hooked up fine to my Concentra, but not the Concerto. It cannot be connected to the Balanced Hi Output on the back of the sub or it will not play or if it does will crack, pop and also the gain control will not work along with an audible hum. It was recommended to try the Low Level so I wanted to know if anyone had luck with this before I invest in a subwoofer speaker wire with the RCA jacks. Or if someone had come up with a solution that works for them.

I had problems with REL and a Pass Labs X-150 and never could get a satisfactory answer. It worked, but not as it should have. Perhaps you are encountering the same kind of issue, but it's still not clear (1) how you are trying to connect the REL and (2) what the result is. Have you tried connecting the REL to the speaker terminals on the Concerto? What do you hear?

I have a similar situation that didn't work out very well for me. I have a Storm III and have been using it for a couple years attached to an Odyssey Stratos amp with good results. I picked up an H20 S250 amp, which is one of the new digital ICE based amps and is also supposedly a balanced amp. Here's my horror story. I hooked everything up just like the manual said, I'm positive (I think ) I double and triple checked the three sub wires that go to the amp. When I turned the amp on I got a loud noice, something started humming and I smelled fried electronics. In a panic I powered everything back off. Luckily it was my sub that "fried" and not my speakers. The sub is unhooked from the amp, but has a loud audible hum when I turn it on. I've been too busy to follow up with Sumiko and Henry Ho to see if I did something wrong. I'm sharing this with you because both of our amps are supposedly balanced digital amps and like yo u mine worked like a champ before. FWIW, the H20 amp has two sets of speaker outputs. I had my biwired pair on the top set of posts and the REL on the bottom set and they were not touching each other.

When connecting a REL to a differential amp using the high level input (the best choice for 2 channel music) you must ground one of the positive wires of the the supplied Neutrix connector to the amplifier. I believe the configuration is red positive to ground, yellow positive to positive amplifier speaker terminal and black to the negative amplifier speaker terminal for the same chanel (either left or right) you have chosen to connect the positive lead to. Double check the configuration; it should be in the owner's manual. Not sure if the Rowland is a differential, but I hope this info can help aleviate problems people may have hooking up their RELs

Its not clear to me how you're connecting, but I'll comment on what works for me...

With my Ayre V-5x (balanced differential), I use the high-level unbalanced input on the REL. I connect the yellow wire to Left+, the red wire to Right+, and the black wire to a chassis ground screw on the amp.

I connected according to the directions in the owner's manual: FIG 2 unbalanced high level input at the sub. To the amp: red to right positive, black to right negative and yellow to left positive. Todster, I tried your suggestion and got nothing.

I had the same problem with my JRDG 201 monos. The fix was simple, you have to lift the grounds on the Rowland. Use a cheater plug on the AC chord. I also have to disconnect my HT processor to the RCA input on the sub when listening to 2-channel. Of course, I'm using the Neutrix connection to speaker out on the amps for 2-channel music listening.